>>> Lobachevsky had in mind the
>> possibility that physical space could be non-euclidean to begin with.
>>Gauss also, it is said. I have read that he went to the trouble of
>triangulating from three mountain peaks to see if there was significant
>deviation from Euclidean angles. Alas, I cannot find a reference;
>can anyone help out on this?
>
I think you'll find it's a myth - see for example Buehler's biography
of Gauss. Actually, I'm a bit sceptical about Gauss and non-euclidean
geometry in general. Nineteenth-century German historians of
mathematics were just unable to accept that something so important
could have come from a Hungarian or even worse a Slav and not from
THE GREAT GERMAN MATHEMATICIAN, and were rather too willing to
believe Gauss's claim (made *after* he had seen Bolyai's work) that
he had come to the result years before and just not published it
through fear of the 'Boetians'. But perhaps there's a proper
historian of mathematics on this list who can refute my scepticism.
Robert
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Robert Black
Dept of Philosophy
University of Nottingham
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